It's shorter than usual, but dammit it's been a year and you guys deserve some action. I'm not making any promises, but I'm going to keep working on this story. It's almost to the end, but I always seem to fizz out around that time and run out of ideas. That's what happened each time I tried to write this chapter, and eventually, I was like **** it, I'm just gonna write. This has not been beta'd, but I will get around to that as soon as I can.

My lovely readers, chapter 17 after 367 days of waiting.

I wasn't a medical professional or anything, but I knew I needed more supplies to clean Izzy's wound than what I'd been given. The bullet had entered about half an inch from the outside of her thigh, thankfully missing anything major that could cause her to bleed out, but with the exit wound to consider I didn't have enough gauze to stop the bleeding.

"Clary, I feel fine. I think it's stopping." Izzy was putting on a brave front, but I knew she wasn't 'fine.'

"Izzy, your face is as pale as the curtains."

"Well, I did get shot. My body's probably trying to process and start healing." I didn't miss the way she slumped against the wall or the way her eyes struggled to stay focused.

"Still, we need to get you out of here. How many guards did you see on your way in?"

"Too many to take with me injured and no long-range weapons. I know I'm not one to give up easily, but I really don't think there's anything we can do but hope someone finds us."

I didn't want to agree, but she was right.

We sat in silence for a while, both trying to think if there was anything we could do to at least ease the gravity of our situation. Eventually, my mind wandered to Izzy's whip, and whether or not we could do anything with it, then something made my mind halt.

"What did you mean by no long-range weapons? You're an instructor for a self-defense academy, you just do martial arts." Izzy's eyes focused and she bit her lip before sighing.

"Sometimes, we get what's recorded in our accounting books as a special training request. These requests aren't necessarily legal and require some weaponry that we normally wouldn't use every day and stays hidden in a secret trunk below the floorboards in my bedroom." I knew what Izzy was implying, but I also knew Jace wasn't involved.

He'd hardly left my side since the night he plucked me from the cold, and the times he had definitely weren't long enough for an illegal venture. Oddly, thoughts of him participating in the business Izzy clearly was involved in didn't bother me as much as I thought it would.

"You're not mad?" Izzy nudged my side. Maybe a few weeks ago I would have been, but now I just wanted to go home.

"No. I'm actually grateful. Those skills will come in handy if the boys can find us, and I can hold onto a shred of hope. How do you feel?" I changed the topic. Thinking of home and Jace made me want to cry, and I refused to cry.

That night we shared the bed, but I remained awake as long as I could. Izzy had gotten progressively paler throughout the day, and I was worried dehydration and blood loss would cause her blood pressure to bottom out. Jonathan hadn't sent anyone in with food or water since Izzy first arrived. He probably knew I would just give it to her, despite his threats.

Sleep pulled me under after a while, but not before I grabbed Izzy's wrist and found her pulse. It wasn't strong, but it wasn't weak either. It would be okay for me to grab a few hours of sleep.

When I woke up, Izzy was trying desperately to wake me through her coughing. Smoke had filled the room, making everything hazy. My eyes immediately started to water, and I started coughing in a fruitless attempt to clear my lungs.

"What's going on?" I managed, trying to look for the source of the fire. I couldn't see anything except for a concentration of smoke flooding in under the inch-wide gap of the steel door.

I scrambled from the bed, dragging Izzy to the floor where the smoke wasn't as thick. Once I knew she was okay and her wound hadn't started to bleed again, I made my way over to the door and started banging on it as hard as I could.

"Help! Someone, please help!" I started coughing again and moved from the door to Izzy. Miraculously, the door was flung open seconds later.

"This is all I can do. I'm sorry." An older man, one of Jonathan's guards, opened the door and promptly ran back down the hall after apologizing.

Izzy grabbed my arm and hauled herself up, slinging her arm around my neck. I didn't say anything as we began to move forward as fast as we could, hoping no one was loyal enough to try and stop us.

The hallway led to a set of stairs, which we managed to navigate through the heavy smoke without falling. We both were coughing heavily by the time we reached the top, and Izzy's grip around my shoulders loosened.

I tried to catch her, but I was so weak and so tired that my limbs didn't want to move properly. I ended up in a crumpled heap beside her.

"Come on, we need to find a way out." Izzy wheezed. We stayed down, crawling along the hard floor in an unknown direction.

I couldn't tell what caused the fire. It had spread so much that flamed licked the walls around us, and small patches of the floor were burning through to the lower floors. Every time the floor groaned, I grabbed Izzy and urged her to go faster.

My eyes were burning, and even though I could register light I couldn't actually see anything other than my own arms and hands and Izzy's dark form beside me. We hit several walls, and it took everything in me to not give up from fear each time.

I had to remind myself that if we made it out, Izzy would need help getting to a hospital. If that sadistic bastard was somehow still alive despite the inferno, I would need to be alive to help capture him.

"The front door!" I coughed out, extra adrenaline flooding my body. I lunged for the door, the act of standing far harder than it should have been. The knob scalded my hand, but I merely gritted my teeth in anger and wrenched the door open. I could feel the flesh of my hand meld to the door and idly wondered if I would still be able to paint.

Bending down, I grabbed the back of Izzy's leather jacket and flung her out the door before collapsing myself. As I started to crawl forward, the fresh air from outside so close, a hand closed around my ankle.

"No!" His voice was desperate, but I didn't freeze in fear this time. Moving in a way I didn't know my body could, I flipped around and kicked Jonathan square in the face with my free foot.

He released me, screaming as he fell backward into the denser smoke. I scrambled forward, ignoring the broken glass and debris and tumbled out the door. With my last bit of strength, I slammed the door shut.

"Please die," I uttered, falling onto the concrete porch. Pain lanced through my hips and back, but the fresh air filling my lungs canceled any yelp.

I was alive. Izzy was alive. I could rest now.

Betcha you guys thought there would be this huge rescue scene with Jace and Alec. Nope! That would be predictable, and I like to throw a curveball when I can. Next post coming 'hopefully' soon, but please keep your definition of soon broad. Hopefully this bout of writer's block is gone and I can really crank out some chapters for not only you guys but also my readers on my other ongoing stories.